The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to handling taxes in computer-based sales transactions.
A typical sales transaction includes a buyer and a seller. The seller sells goods and/or services to the buyer, and the buyer pays a purchase price to the seller for the goods and/or services. In addition, taxes are typically paid in connection with the sales transaction.
Tax handling is one of the tasks performed when processing a sales transaction. The amount and nature of tax owed can depend on a number of properties of the sales transaction, including the geographical location of the buyer, the geographical location of the seller, the geographical location where the buyer pays taxes, the geographical location where the product will be used, the nature of the product, the nature of the buyer, and so on. Therefore, handling taxes can be problematic for sales system vendors, who have to implement complicated mechanisms in their sales systems to account for the many different circumstances and types of sales transactions (i.e., sales transactions with different properties).